The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) is at it again. The left-wing propaganda outlet has published its annual “Year in Hate and Extremism” report, which is aimed mostly at smearing conservatives as ruthless bigots seeking to oppress marginalized communities.
This report, released on June 5, highlights the addition of even more right-leaning organizations on its “Hate Map,” including Gays Against Groomers and medical professionals and organizations that oppose using “gender-affirming care” on children. (Red State)
“The SPLC again kept many mainstream conservative Christian groups on the list of ‘anti-LGBTQ+ hate groups,’ most notably the law firm Alliance Defending Freedom [1] and the think tank Family Research Council.” (see story below)
Any time those in the liberal media want to disparage the right side of the political spectrum, they call on a pool of go-to guys and gals to make their case for them. It’s not news reporting; it’s ideological position marketing designed to destroy the competition. One of their go-to guys is the SPLC is in the money raising business for every known and unknown left-wing kook cause. It has gone from tracking the movements of violent racists, skinhead groups, and a brief resurgence of the KKK that number in the hundreds to creating hysteria over mainstream value voters like those who are associated with American Vision. We’ve been on their list for years.
One of SPLC’s supporters assaulted the headquarters of the Family Research Council.
“Family Research Council’s appearance on the list gained national attention in 2012 when a gunman, Floyd Corkins, entered FRC headquarters with the intent of killing everyone there. FRC’s building manager, Leo Johnson, subdued Corkins and was shot in the process. Corkins targeted FRC after finding the group on Hatewatch. SPLC has continued to label FRC a hate group even after the shooting.
“All the groups listed on Hatewatch, with the exception of black separatists, [George Yancey, professor of sociology at the University of North Texas] notes, are either political or religious conservatives. Yancey believes this is because SPLC is a liberal organization and it is using subjective criteria to choose which groups belong on the list.”
If you don’t agree with the SPLC leftist litmus test, then you are probably a member of a “hate group.” With its new definition of what constitutes a hate group, the SPLC has become a fund-raising machine. It’s no wonder that the SPLC is flush with cash. Ultimately, the tactic is to strike fear in middle-America so the checks keep rolling in. Most communities don’t see skinheads or even KKKers, so the SPLC needs a larger tangible enemy.
These new “hate groups” are: Advocates Protecting Children in Virginia, the California Policy Council, the Center for Christian Virtue in Ohio, the Child and Parent Rights Campaign in Georgia, the Family Action Council of Tennessee, the Florida Family Policy Council, Frontline Policy Council in Georgia, the Louisiana Family Forum, Massachusetts Family Institute, the Montana Family Foundation, Pennsylvania Family Institute, and the Family Foundation of Virginia. (WND)
And medical doctors “who oppose experimental “transgender” medical interventions … euphemistically referred to as ‘gender-affirming care,’ involve drugs to block puberty, cross-sex hormones to make males seem female and vice versa, and surgeries to remove healthy reproductive organs.”
The SPLC will do anything to keep the bucks rolling in. You might remember the census worker in Kentucky who was found hanging from a tree. Mark Potok, a former senior fellow at the SPLC, was Johnny-on-the-spot with his “expert” analysis. He blamed the incident on “anti-government sentiment very much whipped up by militia” types. Here’s the problem. The man wasn’t murdered by anti-government marauders. “Bill Sparkman, the late Census worker, had killed himself, and staged the homicide hoping to get life insurance for his family. Tragic, yes. Right-wing terrorism? Only in Potok SPLC fantasy-land.”[2]
Even the liberal USA Today got the story right. So, was Potok discredited enough that the media no longer called on him and published his “Hatewatch” list? You already know the answer. Of course not!
According to the SPLC, hate has gone mainstream, so you better send a donation before these “haters” come and get you, too! Am I making this up? I counted a dozen or more categories of giving on their website.
The SPLC is a fund-raising industry designed to silence conservatives who want their country back, hold elected officials accountable to their Constitutional oath, and uphold certain moral values. There’s not much money in fighting real hate groups now that only a few of the real haters are still around, so the SPLC needs a bigger, more menacing group of haters — your next-door neighbors and the church down the street, and maybe even you!
Muslim extremists who kill soldiers in the name of Allah on an army base or plan to blow up the streets of New York City or blow the limbs off innocent spectators at the Boston Marathon are of little concern when there are bigger fish to fry and more money to bank.
When stories about the Boston Marathon bombings started coming in, the media sycophants had their profile narrative in hand. It looked like American right-wing extremists were the likely perpetrators. Tax Day . . . Patriots Day . . . Waco Anniversary . . . Hitler’s birthday . . . Oklahoma City Bombing. It was a perfect storm of red meat reasons why conservative anger finally had its release valve.
David Sirota, a blogger at Slate, rendered this post soon after reports of the bombings came in: “Let’s hope the Boston marathon bomber is a white American.” It would have been the best of all possible worlds. Liberals would have used the incident to bludgeon conservatives 24/7. Gun control would be passed, and confiscation would most likely be the next move.
CNN’s Christiane Amanpour said, “How many of us feel this burden of association and hope beyond hope that this doesn’t turn out to be what it might be?” What it “might be” was someone associated with Islamic extremism.
Amanpour has a history of wanting terrorists to be associated with the right wing. She has a history of sympathies with almost anything that’s not American.
Amanpour compared Christian girls who wear long dresses to the Taliban in her six-hour “God’s Warriors” series. The last time I checked, young ladies with long dresses weren’t hiding explosives under them and praying that their children become self-initiated martyrs for Jesus!
Amanpour “investigates” homeschooling families as well. What the connection is with Islamicists I’ll never know. Islamic terrorist expert Robert Spencer nailed the blatant, agenda-driven hypocrisy of the left when he wrote, “Homeschooling is evil too? Sheesh. Over 9,000 terror attacks committed in the name of Islam since 9/11, and Christiane Amanpour is spending her time demonizing homeschoolers.”
Myths, Lies, and Half-Truths
Christianity’s failure to show itself practical in the past 150 years has guaranteed the success of secularism and militant Islam, both of which are doing incalculable harm at home and abroad. The rejection of any type of “this-worldly” application of the Bible has resulted in the proliferation of man-centered worldviews that have steadily drained the life out of our world and left behind a spiritual vacuum. Will the church of Jesus Christ be prepared with biblical answers for the millions who will be ready to follow the light of the gospel as the folly of humanism and Islam is made manifest? (2 Tim. 3:9).
Thinking Straight in a Crooked World
The nursery rhyme “There Was a Crooked Man” is an appropriate description of how sin affects us and our world. We live in a crooked world of ideas evaluated by crooked people. Left to our crooked nature, we can never fully understand what God has planned for us and His world. God has not left us without a corrective solution. He has given us a reliable reference point in the Bible so we can identify the crookedness and straighten it.
[1]“Alliance Defending Freedom has won numerous cases at the U.S. Supreme Court, including free speech and religious freedom cases like 303 Creative v. Elenis and Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission. Even Alliance Defending Freedom’s ideological opponents, such as former American Civil Liberties Union President Nadine Strossen, have condemned the SPLC’s smear against the law firm.” (WND)
[2]Lachlan Markay, “Newsweek Trots Out Discredited SPLC Lawyer Mark Potok to Decry ‘Patriot’ Groups” (April 12, 2010).
Author: Gary DeMar
Gary—who served as President of American Vision for thirty-five years—is a graduate of Western Michigan University (1973) and earned his M.Div. at Reformed Theological Seminary in 1979. Author of countless essays, news articles, and more than 27 book titles, he has been featured by nearly every major news media outlet. Gary also has hosted The Gary DeMar Show, History Unwrapped, and the Gary DeMar’s Vantage Point Webshow and is a regular contributor to AmericanVision.org. Gary has lived in the Atlanta area since 1979 with his wife, Carol. They have two married sons and are enjoying being grandparents. Gary and Carol are members of Midway Presbyterian Church (PCA).
